daily java

Daily Java: I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. (Revelation 3:15-17)

Pitiful little church. You know what’s funny? The church in Laodicea, the church Jesus is talking to in this passage, was probably a big church. It probably had lots of programs and did a lot of stuff. It probably had a large ministerial staff and a good worship band. Everybody in town knew about it.

The problem? It was dead as a hammer.

They had plenty of money and considered themselves to be a rich church. But they weren’t.

They were a lukewarm church.

You ever drink something you thought was going to be hot and it turned out to be lukewarm? It is a real surprise. My first impulse is to spit it out. I don’t because Ella would be mad.

But it is a surprise. When God “tasted” this church, when he encountered it, when he saw it, when he heard their “prayers,” and saw the “worship service,” he knew it was dead.

It was like the guy who no longer loved his wife, but bought her token presents, treated her politely, took her to dinner, slept in the same bed with her every night.

But she knew he no longer loved her. She could see it in his eyes, in his actions, in his very politeness. The love was dead.

Passions cool when you get older, that is normal, but they mature into something better: a deep and abiding love. The church in Laodicea had allowed their love to not only cool, but to just plain die. They were going through the motions with God and with each other.

Now people probably enjoyed coming to church there. And I am betting they probably got a lot of new members from churches around because they were a fun church. Big youth group, big singles group, divorce recovery support group, overeaters’ anonymous, ex-inmate ministry – all those things; but no passion for God.

They probably had very few decisions for Christ, very few to answer the call to grace, very few to experience the infilling of the Holy Spirit. As the old saying goes, they were a mile wide and an inch deep.

Big church, no God. And he was ready to spit them out.

I wonder what happened to them? I sure hope they wised up.